Advice on DV cameras

[Ska Wars]

Time to pick your collective techno-brain.

A friend of mine is after a DV camera and is after some suggestions; what's worth checking out, what should be avoided, are inbuilt mics ok or should she get an external one etc

Basically has to fit the following:

- Be under or around £300 ($500)
- Will be used to make home movies/YouTube stuff
- Be suitable for outside use
- Decent(ish) quality
- Single frame capture for animation would be a plus but not a must

Aside from that any suggestions or tips are more than welcome and points for the best answers/tips.

[Stroddy]

Honestly, if he is going to get a cam.. he should find one that records to a card and not actual DV tape. I've worked with both, and most recently purchased a fuck-ton expensive camera with a buddy, and recording video to a card is so much easier than tape. Easy to format, easy to transfer to a computer, fast as shit, more compact, and not a hassle as tape is.

My 2 cents.

[Beer|\/|onger]

video cameras come in a wide variety. The smaller cheaper camcorders do use 1 small CCD (charge couple device) to do all the work, while the more expensive ones spread it out amongst 3 CCDs 1 for each of the three primary colors. The larger the CCD or 3 CCDs are, the better the quality of the video.

Also, optical zoom is always great.

I have not used cheap HD yet so I don't know if there is any benefit to using a 3 CCD standard over a 1 CCD HD.

Now a couple more things your friend should invest in:

1. A halogen work light mounted on a tripod ($40 or so at Hardware store)

2. An attachment microphone of some kind (onboard audio sucks)

3. A Tripod (A respectable smooth panning/tilting tripod will cost at least $100)

4. The required software to compress the video into a high quality youtube format.

[HS the Wasp]

[JoJo]

Time to pick your collective techno-brain.

A friend of mine is after a DV camera and is after some suggestions; what's worth checking out, what should be avoided, are inbuilt mics ok or should she get an external one etc

Basically has to fit the following:

- Be under or around £300 ($500)
- Will be used to make home movies/YouTube stuff
- Be suitable for outside use
- Decent(ish) quality
- Single frame capture for animation would be a plus but not a must

Aside from that any suggestions or tips are more than welcome and points for the best answers/tips.

Who thinks Ska is making a home porno with his lady friend and they broke their last camera while in mid bang bang?

[Faceman]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1196470791061

I sold mine.

[Beer|\/|onger]

wouldn't that be a junky camera with 1 CCD? You can ebay better for $500

[Cheeto]

wouldn't that be a junky camera with 1 CCD? You can ebay better for $500

By that logic a 5dmark2 can't shoot video for shit because it has only one sensor.

[Beer|\/|onger]

Damn, technology has changed.

[Beer|\/|onger]

Cheeto, explain to me how el cheapo:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1196470791061

Is of equal or better standard definition video quality then:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...der_review.htm
^Which currently goes for $500-$700 on ebay.

OR: Amazon.com: Canon GL1 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Lens & Optical Image Stabilization: Camera & Photo
^Again $500-$700 and the forums somehow made this a big advertisement.

Other things like lens size and lighting improve the quality of a shot but you have to have quality parts under the hood.